SatAM Watchmen:Black Freighter 2parter and fandom
by CreamCheeseAlchemist
Summary: Delving into one of the more popular episodes of the Watchmen Saturday Morning cartoon from the viral video you must see and the fanfic it's inspired. thanks for all the reviews and input.


Before you start reading, go and google and watch the "Saturday Morning Watchmen" fan-video because what follows won't make any sense without it. I'm assuming you reading fic in this section means you've read the original comic or at least seen the movie.

I don't own Watchmen- just a ton of merchandise and 6 ticket stubs so far. I hope to get more of both. Movie's a nice big piece of Hollywood fanart.

A number of other licensed properties are mentioned in passing that I do not own either. I list the upfront ones in the glossary below but there are some Easter eggs in there and, of course, the inevitable associations you guys might make based on your own interests and experiences. Please let me know. I'm curious.

Harry Partridge made the Saturday Morning Watchmen video. Go watch that if you haven't yet. It's awesome and this will be easier to follow if you do. (Such as is why male pronouns are used in reference to Bubastis.)

And a quick glossary, I should have included from the get-go but I operate in a multi-fandom gumbo where it's hard to separate things sometimes. I hope this is sufficient, drop me a note in a review if it's not. :)

Meta- in reference to 'behind the scenes' and the construction of a piece of fiction.

series bible- a document, usually produced in order to pitch a show, with an overview of a show, its backstory, characters and descriptions of potential episodes. Several examples can be found at he-man dot org.

Satam- a contraction of Saturday Morning common to 'toon fandom; Sat. + A.M.

One Piece- a manga and anime series about friendly pirates with comic book-type powers and fighting styles.

Nakama- Japanese term indicating a friend who has become more like family. Usually translated as comrade.

Edward Cullen- animal-eating vampire from Twilight books who hides from sun because it makes him sparkle. Possibly capable of breeding even though dead? Must remember to investigate further.

fanon- fandom, fanart or fanfic trope that either fills in spaces left unexplored in canon or supplants canon altogether among certain fans, particularly those who advocate certain pairings or (relation)ships amongst characters.

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Produced late in the show's run, the Black Freighter 2-parter marked a turning point for the Watchmen cartoon. And it is only now, with some of the show's creative staff posting online and talking about it as the DVDs are finally being released (yay!), that we know why- in the Meta sense. After recording 55 episodes, the last being the first 2/3rds of BF part 2, Rorschach's voice actor left the show. The reasoning varies in each account- some claim it had to do with royalties while others insist it was because he discovered his wife had left him for his boss.

In any case, the show was only 10 episodes short of being able to run in daily syndication- 65 half-hours. So the decision was made to revise the remaining scripts and end the show instead of recasting Rorschach, basically turning the character into an extra. The problem was that it created an uncomfortable continuity in a time when cartoons didn't have them. The Black Freighter 2-parter followed by the original scripts would've been more of the same- traumatic events resolved by show's end so that episodes could be aired in any order.

Part 1 of the BF story starts with a hokey beach party. Most of the Watchmen are in well-covered bathing suits the same colors as their costumes- this being the age of Power Rangers where the audience's intelligence is greatly underestimated. Jon has split up and turned into floaty rafts and donuts for everyone. Bubastis is afraid of water, so animal-friend Rorschach stays on the shore to keep him company and continuing the show's avoidance of Rorschach appearing out of costume as he did a couple times in the original comics. It is a sight I found unsettling even as a kid, Rorschach in full trenchcoat and mask looking out onto the ocean. It felt odd, the goofy member of the team watching his friends playing in the water. I mean, shouldn't he have been splashing the others, swimming with dolphins and stuff like that?

N-E-way- So a minute or two of banter. Nite-Owl's sunhat looks like his cowl. The Comedian tries to kiss Silk Spectre, unsuccessful as always (and thank god! the guy who wrote the series bible obviously never read the comics- giving all of us Satam watch-fans a particularly unpleasant surprise when we did!) Ozy splashes Bubastis playfully, urging him to come into the water. Then the sky begins to darken and a raft appears on the horizon.

In an overly literal take on the Black Freighter story and its connection to Ozymandias in the original comics, the shaggy-haired First Mate atop his raft of bones (no corpses here, kiddies!) grabs Ozy. Bubastis frets, and cut to commercial.

So the team follows on Jon-jet skis, towards the Black Freighter. Jon can't do much without hurting Ozy and the Watchmen are evenly matched against the Black Freighter's crew. They're at an impasse. Jokingly, Rorschach suggests a trade. The First Mate asks, "Would you give yourself up to save your friend?" Rorschach shrugs, figuring this is a joke, "I wouldn't be much use. I mean, I'm not the smartest man alive or anything..." At this, the others look apprehensive. "I don't think you should keep this up," Nite Owl says as he notices the First Mate fighting back an evil smile. "Agreed. I sense..." Jon begins to say.

"Are you willing?" the First Mate yells, impatience creeping into his voice. Finally picking up the seriousness of this situation, Rorschach looks at his friends- including the unconscious Ozy. "You have to let them all go and not hurt them. Ever," he says after a couple of seconds. The others begin to protest. "Done. _We_ won't lay a finger on them. Captain Carnage is waiting for you in his quarters." Aaaand another commercial break.

"We're not leaving without Rorschach." Nite Owl insists as the First Mate hands him Ozy's prone form, "If you wish to live and fight over this another day, you will leave now." None of them budge. "We don't abandon our friends," Silk Spectre insists. "Then we'll kill him if you don't leave," the First Mate snaps back, "the raft is waiting."

As the raft sails away from the Black Freighter, Ozy begins to stir. He looks around, taking in everyone with a paling face as he notices who's missing and everyone's dismal expressions. "No, you didn't let him..."

"We're going to get him back, don't you worry," Nite Owl insists.

"No, you don't understand- Carnage set this up as a trap to get Rorschach in the first place."

"And we played right into their hands," Comedian hisses and fade to black, to be continued.

The second episode of the BF is set about a week later. The team misses Rorschach and how his wackiness helps in times like this- as they desperately try to find him. And eventually he shows up- grim and tough after his time onboard the Black Freighter- no longer their goofy friend. Everyone tries to talk him out of it. In the original script, their words reach him and he plays a joke on the Freighter's captain and the Watchmen- playing along until he can take down Captain Carnage personally. But that reveal was never recorded, on account of the loss of the VA. Rorschach was simply knocked unconscious by Jon in the midst of bitterly refusing to return to the Watchmen and taken home. The original ending remains, however, with Captain Carnage promising his crew that "Walter will return to us soon enough"- the only time in the show's run that Rorschach's civilian name from the comics was used.

What followed were 10 episodes where Rorschach had no dialogue- giving out an unsettling continuity and all sorts of speculation as to what happened to him onboard the BF even as the show remained hokey with episodes like "Moloch's Malarkey". If the Black Freighter episodes had been followed up with Rorschach carrying on as usual- silly and friendly as ever, it would have been more of the same hokey nature of the show. But this was disturbing the way Rorschach went from the team goofball to silent. The show never went into what happened to Rorschach onboard to create such a change in personality. That's why this is easily the most interpreted part of the 'toon canon- a total angst-fest in fanfic.

The most common ones concern the return of the Black Freighter. Usually, the captain is revealed to be Rorschach's father. It's become such a cliché, though, that parodies are increasingly frequent. My favorite is the one where the squid from the episode "Crackin'" and the theme song turns out to be the captain of the Black Freighter- even addressing some of the slash tropes (more on those in a minute). Major squick but pretty funny in how it deflates the menace and horror. Another great spoof rewrites the episode with the One Piece pirates instead of the Black Freighter and their attempts to get their 'nakama' back. Funny and clean.

Slash fic tends to emphasize the sheer brutality Rorschach suffered onboard (mostly rape, you sick fangirls you)- sometimes as leading up to his inevitable return to the ship and sometimes as an angsty rescue fic where he's usually paired up with Nite Owl, Ozy (complete with idyllic finales where he's moved in and playing with Bubastis), or in a love triangle with them while Captain Carnage seeks to have Rorschach all to himself.

Hurt/Comfort abounds in the stories that deal with the aftermath of the BF 2-parter. You can pretty much find every possible Rorschach pairing (even some cross fandom monstrosities like that Edward Cullen/Rorschach. WTH?!) represented here but there's some nice friendship ones out there too. I especially like the one where Bubastis gets Rorschach to start talking again and regain his nutty sense of humor. I didn't think it made much sense to make Rorschach an animal lover when Ozy was the one with a pet. This fic brought in some fanon that made sense and was quite sweet.

Also a favorite, among the "Rorschach chooses to return to the Black Freighter" stories, is one where the Freighter is revealed as actually being good, having targeted Rorschach because he's the only one who can stop Ozymandias from making the squid in the comics timeline- their explanation being that Ozy never attacked Rorschach directly- iffy but an interesting idea. In the end, Rorschach refuses to do this without his friends- so the story's latest chapter ends with the 'toon Watchmen and Freighter sailing into the comics continuity to stop the squid plot. I hope it gets updated soon.

The stories I especially dislike set up the jokey Rorschach of the 'toon as a facade long before the Black Freighter crosses his path- sometimes bringing in elements of the original character or grossly over reading some cheesy, badly animated scene from the show as evidence the Watchmen didn't like him. But in canon, they liked Rorschach. He was funny within the context of the show (it was full of cheesy humor). He was unpredictable and steadfast up against the Watchmen's enemies- making him a useful member of the team. The Satam Watchmen teased each other but never maliciously. It wasn't that type of show. Everyone was different and special in their own way but they got along.

Which is why I had to write my version of the Black Freighter's return. I don't go much into the horrors onboard but I make one clear point. As mentioned in the original show, the Freighter had their sights on Rorschach from the beginning. My spin being that Captain Carnage felt the breaking of his carefree, jokey spirit would be the most terrible- much like he'd ensnared the First Mate in the original comics with threats against his family. So the story begins with Rorschach having more nightmares of the time onboard, the team trying to help him, even an appearance by the prison shrink from the comics (if it were a real episode, Al Roker should do the voice)... but Rorschach is getting more brutal. He knows it's only a matter of time before he becomes a danger to his friends, so he heads back to the beach. Standing out on the shore, just like in the BF part 1, he waits until the Black Freighter appears over the horizon. His hat blows off as he gets in the water and swims towards the ship. "Same terms," he mutters upon boarding. "No one in crew hurts my friends if I join," his voice the awful monotone of the comics as the Black Freighter appears. "Done. You won't ever hurt them ever again, Walter," Captain Carnage purrs. But he has.

Three months later, the Watchmen are in full costume, having a picnic on the beach. The team has recently admitted Silhouette, a pretty girl in her late teens with rainbow barrettes in her hair. Would Rorschach approve? I don't know but since I read the comic after Kitty Genovese's girlfriend made their relationship public, I find it ironic that Rorschach is homophobic in the comics. I don't think the 'toon Watchmen are, because they're all decent and brave and kind. It's a pretty somber affair compared to the get-togethers from the cartoon but there is a newfound closeness beyond what was there before. Jon's brought his girlfriend Janey for the first time. Silk Spectre brought her mother and whispers "she likes younger men" to the Comedian before sitting down next to Nite Owl. Ozy is petting Bubastis, happy to see the Watchmen are no longer just a team but a family... yet it's bittersweet. Bubastis is curled up next to Rorschach's hat- all they have left of their friend and a reminder of when the two of them, the biggest goofs on the team, managed to defeat Twilight Lady on their own when she turned the other Watchmen into werewolves or something (paranormal stuff was always fuzzy in early 90s 'toons but I always liked that episode). Ozy isn't quite sure the sacrifice was worth it and he can see traces of sadness in everyone's eyes- even the new Silhouette, who's never even met Rorschach. But he's smart enough not to let it consume him for his own good, and for the others. He asks Jon for the ketchup. Jon accidentally spills it, leaving a red Rorschach blot on the sand. As everyone looks at it, Ozy thinks everyone sees the same thing. Jon knows they do.


End file.
